VETERAN'S DAY PINK

Minor things going on, like my protyme blood tests are too high. We keep having to adjust the Coumadin. If I have too much, I bruise really easy. I have little bruises all over my arms and legs. The steroids are making me nervous. But, overall, I think I am feeling better. I get tired,  but just not so fast. There is a strange catch in my lungs sometimes that they can not figure out. Oh, well, Maybe Dr Miller can.

I have been enjoying FarmVille & FarmTown on Facebook with Garrett & Taylor. They had spent all their money and didn't have enough to plant new crops, so Rhonda let me into the account and I have been able to help them. Now I find ways to help them earn money to plant crops during the day and they spend it at night. LOL!

I did spend Veterans Day with my favorite Veteran, my dear Ray. There was a Lion's Eyebank Meeting at Norfolk Sentara this evening but he was home by 7 or so.

I am still in some pain and I mention for those who may be going through this in the future. The prednisone seems to be helping for now. I will see Dr. Miller on the 19th and have more tests about the joint pain. The chest pain is my lung and they seem to think that I have some scar tissue there. It causes me to do this almost hiccup thing every once in a while. It isn't actually a hiccup or sneeze, but quite involuntary anyway.

I am really enjoying being back at church on Wednesday nights. Our Pastor, Dale Seley is a very good Bible teacher. I learned a lot of information that I had no idea about. Funny, when Dr. Everet taught, I was more on the college level and knew what he was talking about. Dale talks about other denominations and what they believe. I have never been that interested in the minor differences between Baptist denominations.

Anyway, God is Good, All the Time!
Love to all, Barbara

SweetTweets PINK

I am in the pink today. Feeling very good, thank you. It has been a normal week with its ups and downs. There have been good days and bad days.

I did get an appointment finally with Dr. Miller the Rheumetologist on 19 Nov. When I went for my protime this week, it was up a little. I also saw my NP (Cliff Pyne) this week. My chest xray they took last week didn't show any pneumonia, but there is something there. He and Dr. Schlesinger seem to think that there is an auto-immune problem and maybe Dr Miller can find out what it is. I know that I occasionally have a problem breathing and there is pain in my chest sometimes. I am still sleeping practically sitting up. It makes for tweeting in the middle of the night sometimes because I wake up and cannot go back to sleep, so I Tweet!

I rode to Richmond with Ray last Friday. He had a BGAV (Baptist General Association of VA) meeting in preparation for the Conference the next week in Fredericksburg.
I sat in the conference room downstairs and worked on my laptop while he was in the meeting. He was able to give the new officers the benefit of his expertise in parliamentary procedures.

Cresenti Williams came by today and had lunch with me. We had seafood salad, boiled eggs, and cottage cheese, w/ Triscits. Very good. She went to a bible study and Mary Lynch's house and I will see her at church later.

I am looking at all the cards I have received. There must be close to 350 cards in the basket now. I had to get a bigger basket.

Twitter has been a lot of fun lately. They have opened up a lists feature that you can share with certain people. That will make it so you can have many lists, like family, friends, SweetTweets, etc., I am excited.

I am taking my ladies and gentlemen to church tonight. I am happy about that. I finally feel better and it shouldn't be a problem taking them. They are so grateful to be able to go again. There has been a lady that takes them sometime, when her car is running. I appreciate so much that she has been able to fill in. My immune system should be such that I will be alright being around that many people.

The Governor for Lions District 24-D was at our Lions meeting last Monday. He presented me with the Lions' President's Award for creating the Facebook page for Lions, District 24D, Virginia. The 1st Vice District Governor, Lion Donna Weiler has been adding things to the page and doing a great job.

The Matthews Lions Club made sure that we had December 12th open so we can DJ their Christmas Party at the Matthews Yacht Club. We have been doing their party for about 6 years. It is so much fun. The food is excellent and the people are great. Any Lions interested in going could let us know and we could sign you up for the party. The cost is $25. per person.  It is a wonderful night of fun, food, fellowship (and dancing). Ray sings selected show tunes and if Lion Debbie Ivey is there, she will be imitating Patsy Cline. She does such a good job.

Think I better go and take a nap so I can go to church tonight. I love you all!
Barbara

NOT QUITE PINK!

I had a strangly restful weekend in VA Beach. Wasn't feeling too well but went to the Lions Fall Conference anyway. It was very nice in some ways, and horrendous in others. The Holiday Inn was renovating the lobby and it made for a very uncomfortable stay. It was gutted and the dust and odor was aweful. It pervaded everything. I hate to think that we probably digested a good deal of it in the dinners we ate there. Conference food is iffy at best, but the food was not too good (even if it had been hot). Only one elevator was working where the temporary lobby was located.

Unfortunately there was also an American Legion State Convention there and they were all crowded around all the entrances so you could not enter the lobby without walking through a cloud of cigarette smoke. The conference and dining rooms were small with tables so crowded that the servers could barely get through with the food.

At least the rooms were nice. We were on the third floor and our room had been redone already (thank God). I spent most of my time there since the lobby was such a mess and the conference rooms were so tiny and without air conditioning. I just can't stay in a place that doesn't have AC. I do know that if I am ever in charge of a conference, I will try to make sure that it is in a new hotel or at least are not planning renovations. This is the second bad Holiday Inn stay though. We may have to stay somewhere else next time they book us into a Holiday Inn.

We came home Sunday and chilled out the rest of the day. Monday night there was a Peninsula Baptist Association Meeting at First Baptist. I went mainly because Reverend Billy Lewis was there and singing. He used to be a member of our church and I was on the Deacon Body when he was accepted for ordination as a pastor for his Praise Ministry. It was an honor to be on his certification team. We all love to hear him sing and he is a great servant of God.

Tuesday evening, Ray went back to the PBA meeting and Cindy came over and stayed with me until about 6 o'clock. She cut up the pineapple that was given to me in a Care Basket by some lovely women in my Sunday Bible Study Class: Ann Glover, Lou Ladson, Linda Hoffler, and Annabelle Thornton. Janice Mahone had the basket for us when we went Monday night. There was the Pineapple, apples, homemade chocolate covered peanuts, Fall dish, Pumpkin, book, pkg of dried fruit & nuts, gum, etc., not to mention the beautiful Fall decorated basket. There was also a bag full of toilitries, like lotion, candle, soap, etc. They were so thoughtful and made me feel so special. They are very thoughtful and Godly women. I love them all so much.

I went and had my protyme test today and it was normal. They sent me to the hospital for a chest xray because I am still feeling pain in my chest. My joints are still hurting some so I am still on the Prednisone. Ray went to choir practice and I went to sleep in the recliner. I can't seem to sleep on the bed. If I lay down, when I get up my chest hurts worse and it takes me longer to get myself together when I wake up.

To my Twitter #SweetTweets. Thanks for listening. Hope your day was wonderful. I am going to try to get out on my own tomorrow and go to Sally's by myself. Maybe the Mall. Who knows?

Love to you all, God is Good, All the time!

Dr. Kimberly Schlesinger

I have had so much going on. I have pneumonia again. When I saw Dr Schlesinger on Friday, she changed my antibiotics and put me back on steroids. I also have to find a Rheumatologist because they think that I have developed Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Dr. Schlesinger said that a friend of mine had sent candy to her office. She had shared it with the staff and they really loved it. I told her it was from Kathy Ireland, my Twitter friend. She was very grateful. She said that doesn't happen too often. She said there was no return address or she would have sent a card. So I went on Kathy's website today and sent an email, plus I tried to send her a message on Twitter. I hope she gets it. I have her personal email somewhere.

What is next? Anyway, I still say "God is Good, All the Time." Too sick to be at church tomorrow; I was sure looking forward to it.

Ray and I are watching Dr. Charles Stanley from First Baptist Church in Atlanta, In Touch Ministries. He is such a wonderful pastor. He is preaching on anger. It would be so easy to be angry at God now, but I am not; never with Him. He is my strength and my comfort.

I am just so tired all the time. Sometimes, even too tired to Tweet. Twitter has kept me going though. Even when I am in pain, I can tweet. LOL! It certainly keeps my spirits up (unlike Tweety Bird).

Actually, some girlfriends have helped also. They even include Ray sometimes.

Cindy and her sister brought us spaghetti & meatballs the other night. They were so good. Cindy is a very good cook. She comes and brings me fruit and yogurt. She is so nice. I really don't mind helping her with some of her business matters. Her husband died and he did all the money management in the family. I have increased our portfolio so I think I might be semi-qualified to help her out. At least I can help her with the language barrier.

PNEUMONIA PINK AGAIN

Well, here I sit at my computer again. It is a laptop that I can use while I am sitting in my favorite chair with my legs propped up and easily nod of if necessary. I am so glad that my mother gave me this chair, it sleeps well. LOL!

Ray had to take me to the emergency room Sunday morning. I had been having pain in my right arm and shoulder for a couple of weeks and Saturday it just got progressively worse FAST! Pain medication just didn't help and by the time Ray woke up Sunday morning, the pain had spread from arm/shoulder to neck/other shoulder/left arm. I was in so much pain that he took me to the ER at Riverside in my pajamas. We were there from about 6:30 a.m. until noon.

The diagnosis was that the pneumonia had returned. There happens to be so many people in the hospital with infections that the doctor thought it better to give me medication and send me home. Thank God!

Staying is the hospital was not something I wanted to do. I seem to get worse there, because they don't encourage me to move around. At least, at home I can do small things and move around some. And, I can write, or Twitter. Not to mention the cable is better at home.

Ray and I had gone to a Deacon Retreat on Saturday. I was having trouble then, but was just taking pain meds to get through. Since the pneumonia is in the same quadrant of my lung, I am thinking it never really healed well. Must have been something there but the xray just didn't pick it up before they released me from the hospital before.

One of my friends worked for JC Penney's for almost 30 years and they fired her. She was a manager in the VA Beach store. She is one of the most wonderful women I have ever met. She will be ordained as a deacon in our church in January. She is a woman of high morals, integrity, compassion, loyalty, etc. I used to shop at Penney's but will no longer do so. I am even going to ask others to not shop there if they can help it.

To put in that kind of time, the amount of extra time she worked because she was dedicated to excellence is very dissappointing and I think it is a case of discrimination. She was making enough money each year to pay 2 new manager trainee's. She has kept up her education and even has a Master's Degree. She was 2 years from drawing her retirement and now she won't even have health insurance after 18 months. She even moved to VA Beach last year to be closer to her job, even though all her friends and church friends live on this side of the Elizabeth River. She is confident enough in her position that she is taking it to arbitration and probably will be sueing them in the near future. I hope she does.

Companies need to know that just because a woman reaches a certain age, you can not just fire her because a new store manager is threatened by her knowledge and work ethic. Of course, the new store manager moved from Sears and it is possible that the same thing happened to her there. I hope not. I wouldn't like having to boycott Sears too. So, join me in letting JC Penney's know that they cannot fire women just because they reach a certain age. My friend could probably sue on three counts: gender, race, age discrimnation. I hope she does. Then she could move ahead with her plan for her retirement, which is to preach and teach the Gospel.

My dear friend Cindy brought us dinner for Monday night. It was a Korean chicken curry dish. It was very good but I got so sick. Turns out it had monosodium glutimate in it and I am so allergic to it. My hands swoll up even though I had thrown it up. I hated to tell her it made me ill, but she keeps bringing us dinner and I didn't want to give that up because she is a good cook. She was so gracious and wants to bring us dinner for tonight. Isn't that sweet? I wish that I had gotten to know her better when Marty was still alive. She loved him so much and really misses him.

I have been helping her with some of her bills. I went through a lot of her stuff an was able to answer some questions for her about billing and paying her bills. She is going to be fine. Marty left her enough money to take care of herself for a long time if she takes care of the money. At least she has Ray and I to help her out and explain things to her so she doesn't get taken in by strangers.

She and Honye have been going to church with us. Honye (her sister) will be going home to Korea the end of November and won't be able to come back for 5 months after that. She will concentrate on learning English before she comes to live here permanently. They are looking into starting a business when Honye comes back. Something to do with clothing, I think.



My friends at church have been wonderful. Praying for me and sending cards. I am going to have to count them again. My twitter friends have been Retweeting me until I finally went over my goal of 10,000 followers. I wonder how long until I can get 20,000? Never give up, keep the goal out there.



I need to go read my devotions. I have a book by Joyce Meyers that I am reading for devotions each morning and evening. Very nice. Take care, Love to all, Barbara

MONTH OF PINK

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Go figure. I don't remember it being in October before. My birthday month.

I had blood tests yesterday and my protime is finally normal for coumadin. My blood has been either too thin or too thick the past few weeks. Finally got a normal reading yesterday. Strange when you wonder whether you may have a blood clot or a hemorage.

I actually went to Office Depot by myself. I walked around about an hour. Gee, the prices have risen in the past few months. I can understand why everyone is scrambling for sales and coupons. I was actually looking for a folder for Swinging Singers. I went a couple of weeks ago and joined. Ray says the folder is at the Christian Book Store. I may go look today. The folder given to me was used and a little ragged. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't like ragged.

We had a nice time in NC. I wasn't feeling too well, but the twins really brightened my day. They stayed with me Saturday. Garrett even spend Friday night with us.

Taylor wanted me to video her on my new Flip video camera that Ray gave me for my birthday. This is so cute.

I called Cindy and she didn't take her sister to church Sunday. I am hoping that they will go to church with us tonight for dinner and meet me Sunday for church.

It is supposed to be a beautiful day. I am going to try to do some things this morning to help Catherine around here. She comes at 8am. I am so glad she is still coming. She has been such a blessing to me. I told Ray that the best birthday present anyone could give me would be a Wednesday with Catherine cleaning. It really helps a lot when you are sick if your home is clean.

Got the urge to write today. Got to get my SweetTweets done and move on this morning to bigger and better things. I woke up really early and even started the wash. Wow! Haven't touched the washer in months.

Have a great day and let me know your prayer concerns. I will take time to pray for you and your peeps.

OCTOBER PINK

It is so nice to be feeling better. I seem to have good days and bad days. Today is pretty good. We went to NC for the the weekend. The weather was perfect. Rhonda has made our little vacation house yard look nice. The house is just perfect for Ray and me. The kitchen is big and open so I can cook my favorite foods and we even have a deck on the side where we can grill and eat outside.

I had my Birthday last Thursday. Garrett sang me Happy Birthday!